Setting the User Experience Expectation

When does the user experience begin? Does it begin the moment someone enters your website, opens your app or interacts with your digital platform? For me, it starts with awareness. The user experience starts when they become aware of your brand and your offerings. Whether it is a Spotify ad, a podcast highlighting your service or a direct mail piece encouraging you to engage, you are stirring up an emotional connection through brand. This initial connection is creating an experiential expectation for the user.

A good example of a brand that begins the user experience by building a connection well before their app is downloaded is Uber. Uber looks at user experience from the moment of awareness to engaging with their app to experiencing the ride itself. They do not have a silo-mindset that user experience is just a digital experience. They set the expectation that user experience is a brand experience as a whole.

Are you setting the right expectations through your advertising and brand awareness campaigns? Do you look at advertising and brand awareness as a way to get people in the door or as the beginning of your experiential brand story?